Nats no match for Ohtani in shutout loss (updated)

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Nationals got to experience their first taste of the international sensation that is Shohei Ohtani pitching (and hitting) tonight. And though they put up an admirable fight against the Angels’ two-way star, they ultimately were rendered helpless against him just as everyone else has this young season.

Ohtani allowed just one hit over seven scoreless innings. He wasn’t necessarily overpowering, issuing five walks and hitting a batter, but he was mostly unhittable en route to a 2-0 victory over a Nats club that just wasn’t up to the stiffest challenge it has faced in its first 12 games of the year.

"I think it's amazing," said Nats starter Josiah Gray, a position player himself only a few years ago in college. "I was talking about it today: I wonder what his routine is. How does he fit in time to throw? How does he fit in time to hit? To see him go out there and sit 97, with a sweeper/slider and hit the ball 110 mph if not harder, it's really impressive. Every time you can sit down and watch a Shohei Ohtani start or watch him hit, it's must-watch TV. Being able to see him today and being able to face him today was an honor."

Gray wasn’t to blame for the loss; the 25-year-old right-hander allowed just two runs on four hits himself over 5 2/3 strong innings, certainly giving his team a chance. But as was the case five days ago in Denver, Gray got zero run support and was handed an undeserved loss, leaving him 0-3 overall despite a respectable 4.32 ERA.

"It stings. It's always going to sting to get an L and have your name attached to it," he said. "But I know I'm going out there, doing my job keeping the team in the game. I'm just making it simpler on myself. I'm seeing the results I want to see."

This was the sixth time the Nationals have been held to one hit in a nine-inning game in club history, the first since May 12, 2019 against the Dodgers. They’ve still never been no-hit since arriving in D.C.

"It was pretty tough," catcher Keibert Ruiz said. "He's maybe the best player on the planet. But it was fun, too, to face him."

Given the opposition tonight, Gray had to know he needed to be in top form to have a chance. He actually wasn’t in top form when it came to command – a good number of his pitches sailed high, wide or in the dirt – but he was still awfully effective when he needed to be.

Gray faced the minimum through three innings, helped by a double play grounder and his own athleticism that was required to make an acrobatic catch while just barely getting his foot on the corner of the bag covering first base on a grounder to the right side.

Then a quick, but dramatic loss of command got him in the fourth. Gray opened the frame by plunking both Taylor Ward and Mike Trout on wayward breaking balls. And when Ohtani followed with a single to left, the Nationals starter found himself in a dilly of a pickle. To his credit, he minimized the damage, allowing just one run to score (via Anthony Rendon’s sacrifice fly) before inducing an inning-ending double play to keep the deficit at 1-0.

Perhaps most notable about Gray’s outing was the deploying of his full repertoire. The four-seam fastball wound up being his least-used pitch, swapped out for cutters and sinkers. He emphasized both his slider and curveball instead of relying on one over the other. And he even broke out his first changeup of the season at just the right moment, striking out an unsuspecting Ohtani looking at a perfectly placed pitch on the lower outside corner.

"If I can throw them all like that," Gray said, "that would be awesome."

He did finally succumb in the bottom of the sixth. After falling behind in the count 2-0 to Logan O’Hoppe, he left a cutter up and over the plate to the Angels catcher and watched him hammer it to left for a leadoff homer and a 2-0 deficit.

Things got away from Gray after that. He wound up issuing his only two walks of the game, back-to-back on four pitches a piece, and with a pitch count of 103, Davey Martinez decided not to push his young starter any further.

"Just faded in the sixth a little bit," Gray said. "Probably a little more fatigued than usual."

In came Thaddeus Ward to a tight spot, but the Rule 5 pick delivered the best pitch of his very young career, striking out Luis Rengifo looking at a 2-2 sweeper on the outside corner to escape the sixth with the deficit still at 2-0.

Alas, the Nationals still needed to find a way to mount any offense against Ohtani, which proved every bit as difficult a challenge as you might expect.

They did manage to put runners on base, six of them through the first five innings. But only one came via hit: CJ Abrams’ two-out double to right in the top of the fourth. Otherwise, the Nats’ best offense was Ohtani’s wildness. They were able to draw five walks off him, and Victor Robles also reached when he was hit by an errant pitch.

That wasn’t enough to push across any runs, though. The Nationals took just two at-bats with runners in scoring position and went 0-for-2, with Ruiz grounding out in the first and Michael Chavis grounding out in the fourth.

"We took our walks," Martinez said. "We were trying to get him in the zone. Keibert hit the ball really hard in the first inning. That ball gets down the line, it's a different game. But we hung in there. The at-bats were pretty good. We just couldn't get the hit when we needed it."

Angels manager Phil Nevin played it safe with Ohtani and pulled him after seven innings and 92 pitches, perhaps giving the Nats dugout a glimmer of hope. But they fared no better against the Los Angeles bullpen and thus suffered their second shutout loss of this road trip.

"It's very frustrating," Joey Meneses said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "He was locating all of his pitches very well, especially on the corners. It was definitely some tough at-bats."